A TikToker said her family vacation plans at Walt Disney World hit a major snag when her parents spent $10,000 on the wrong Disney gift card.
Andie Coston, a.k.a. TikToker @aofthecoast, said her 78-year-old parent accidentally bought a $10,000 gift card for Disney+, the streaming platform, instead of a gift card meant for use at the Disney theme parks.
Thankfully, Disney rectified the issue after Coston's TikTok video about the mishap—and subsequent comments—went viral in less than 24 hours of posting.
Coston started off her video by explaining that their magical holiday vacation was originally set for 2020 but was postponed after the world was upended by the pandemic.
"We finally planned it for this Christmas. All 16 of my family members were going," read the text overlay.
"To save some money, my parents bought 10k of Disney gift cards to purchase our tickets and restaurant reservations."
"I went home this weekend, and they were having problems loading the gift cards correctly and purchasing the tickets."
The clip then cut to a stack of gift cards for Disney+ in $100 denominations.
"Yup. We have 10K of Disney Plus Streaming Services. That's over 70 years of Disney Plus."
Here is the clip.
She asked viewers for help and stressed that it wasn't about the money but more about obtaining the value in the intended form.
With the clock ticking, Coston said:
"We leave in 6 days and the parks are selling out of tickets because it's Christmas."
"My mom is distraught, Dad frustrated, and the kids worried we won't get into Disney."
She concluded the video by asking if anyone knew of someone who could help.
But instead of receiving sound advice, Coston got a lot of judgment.
@aofthecoast/TikTok
@aofthecoast/TikTok
@aofthecoast/TikTok
@aofthecoast/TikTok
@aofthecoast/TikTok
When one commenter asked, "Does no one read when buying? lol," Coston replied:
"My parent isn’t familiar with Disney Plus and just saw Disney. The cashier didn’t notice it either ringing up 100 of them."
In a positive turn of events, Coston said she had received a text message indicating that Disney had contacted her parents and was converting the $10K value of Disney streaming into $10K for the Disney parks.
Coston addressed the conflicting camps, and declared it was a win-win either way.
"Those of you who were nice, we did it," she said, adding:
"Those of you who are mean, you posted my comments so Disney would notice."
Coston said she was relieved Disney resolved the matter and hoped this wouldn't happen to other people.
"I hate that this is what it took," she admitted.
"I know that there are people out there who this would have been disastrous or would have set them back," she said, after admitting this wasn't that much of a costly strike against her parents, but would be for families living paycheck to paycheck.
"I'm really hoping that Disney takes notice of this and creates a little better system because they are not transferrable."
Coston said she hoped the confusing system would get "fixed for other people" and she ended the clip with:
"I hate that this is what it took for us and I hope I never go viral again."
@coyleray/Instagram